Black Hair Discrimination In The Workplace

A february 2017 study found that black women feel more anxiety about their hair and are twice as likely in comparison to white women to feel pressure to straighten it in their workplace.

Black hair discrimination in the workplace. Minorities have suffered hair discrimination for years. Hair discrimination is rooted in the idea that straight hair is clean neat and professional while the belief is the opposite for textured or curly hair types. In fact a study in 2016 found an overwhelming bias in favor of smoother hair types and against natural ones which leaves black women vulnerable to discrimination.

For black women and our hair that means sharing these stories of discrimination instead of being shamed into silence. Is hair discrimination a new form of race discrimination 1 sadly it is not new and it is not novel. Many black people in the united states face barriers or judgments in the workplace when they display their natural hair.

Whether rocking afros or pressed hair black protesters demanded the signing of the civil rights act of 1964 which ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination the act also created the eeoc which operates as the lead enforcement agency in the area of workplace discrimination when the eeoc was founded. The study also uncovered that 80 percent of african. A brief history of black hair politics and discrimination new york and california just became the first states to pass laws declaring hair discrimination to be illegal.

Ahead read how black hair is. Hair discrimination is racial discrimination and we ought to recognize that at the national level too he said at essence fest an event produced by the company behind the black women s. Natural hairstyles have long been the target of deep seated invidious stereotypes about black people and their hair mainly that black hair is unclean unprofessional or unkempt 1 in particular for black women who wish to.

In early february the perception institute released the results of their 2016 study confirming that black women with natural hair experience bias in the workplace the good hair study. Specifically hair discrimination affects black americans and other minorities with textured natural hair that has not been straightened or chemically changed.